Introduction
For Vesak Day 2025 (officially on May 12th in Vietnam) am happy to share this new article about my participation and experience as an official delegate and invited speaker at the United Nations Vesak Day (UNVD) International Conference hosted by the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha in Saigon/Ho Chih Minh City between 6-8 May 2025.
It was reported that over 3,300 delegates—including around 1,300 international guests from 85 countries and territories attended the event based on the theme of “Solidarity and Tolerance for Human Dignity: Buddhist Wisdom for World Peace and Sustainable Development.” It is the second time I have been to Vietnam (and to HCMC) and was delighted to have been invited to attend and participate at this international conference.
The event was momentous in two main ways, first, it commemorated Vesak, one of the most sacred days in the Buddhist calendar of the birth, enlightenment and parinirvarna of Shakyamuni Buddha. It is traditionally celebrated on the full moon day of the month of Vesakha in the Indian lunar calendar (the 15th Day of the 4th lunar month). To date, the United Nations Vesak Day has been celebrated 24 times, with 15 hosted in Thailand, once in Sri Lanka, and three in Vietnam. Previous Vesak celebrations in Vietnam were held in Hanoi in 2008, Ninh Binh in 2014, and Ha Nam in 2019. Buddhism first arrived in Vietnam over 2,000 years ago—brought in by Vietnamese monks via ancient trade routes from India and China—and has been a spiritual pillar ever since.
Secondly, it was a major international Buddhist event, with political leaders, heads of state, leaders of Buddhist Sangha from China, India, SE Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and from my own home country, the UK, with various cultural and musical programmes arranged too. The Vietnam Buddhist sangha organised the event, which also marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the 50th Anniversary of national reunification. It was “not only a global Buddhist forum, but a cultural bridge fostering inter-religious dialogue and sustainable development co-operation.” There was also a Buddhist art exhibition, and the veneration of the Buddha’s relics and the Sacred Heart of Bodhisattva , Thich Quang Duc.
Although, as I observe below, despite many women attending as observers, on the first and final days of the event, the main plenary speakers panel and congratulatory messages were overwhelmingly male and monastic. There were more female voices and speakers during the academic conference on the second day, 7th May 2025, although I was the only female listed on my panel, and several panels were all-male, for more on the panels and speakers, see below.
Overall, the event was a joyous and momentous occasion, and one I was honoured and grateful to have been invited to attend and participate, as well as be hosted to stay at one of the most stunning hotels in the centre of the city, with amazing views over the Saigon river, which I also detail below.
In brief, a huge amount of planning, effort and money went into the event. In terms of its size and grandness, the message was loud and clear that despite history and war, many Vietnamese consider themselves Buddhists still and the event was a major success in promoting the visibility and presence of the Buddha’s teachings on this planet in countries like Vietnam and bringing together Buddhists from many other countries too. I would certainly be happy to attend and speak at such an event again!
In this short report, I share my own personal experiences, photos and observations of this major Buddhist event. Wishing all a meaningful and happy full flower moon Vesak Day tomorrow.
May it be of benefit to all beings and teachings and may my presence at the Vesak Day 2025 event encourage and guide people to abandon eating slaughtered animals, in accordance with Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching in the three vehicles. May it be a voice and presence for the animals, who have no voice to protest their treatment.
Music? Vietnamese Buddhist chants , Unforgettable by Nat King Cole, and Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 11th May 2025.
Buddhist Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam and the UNDV conference 2025 at Vietnamese Buddhist University
As I wrote about on my first Buddhist pilgrimage visit to Vietnam last year, to Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chih Minh and Dalat, Vietnam is historically and traditionally a Buddhist country, which experienced significant setbacks and bloodshed/destruction as a result of a political and military conflict that divided the Vietnamese people for some time.
Visiting Vietnam now though, the country is at peace and re-unified and is economically and materially very developed, yet still maintains Buddhist temples, statues and builds new ones too. For example, like the huge female Bodhisattva statue in Danang (which I wrote about before).
As for Ho Chih Minh City (HCMC), my visit in 2024 was also about visiting the Buddhist temples and sites. However, this year I came to attend the UNVD conference 2025, hosted at the Vietnamese Buddhist University (originally founded in 1984). The university is the largest Buddhist educational institution in Vietnam about an hour’s drive from the centre of HCMC on a vast 24-hectare campus, which also houses a library and various other facilities.
On Day 1 (May 6) of the UNVD 2025 event, people were lining up to see the Buddha’s relics there, in a temple next to the university. It was warm and humid in the mornings, and rainy in the afternoons (the rainy season has just started in Vietnam) and so I gravitated towards the relics. An elderly Vietnamese couple, whom I have never met before, then suddenly came up from behind me and said come with us, we are going to see the relics and we can take you to the front of the queue! So I went off escorted by them and as we were walking, I found out that they both lived in Germany now, but that the man was the founder of one of the biggest car brands in Vietnam!
Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in the relics temple, but it was a magical way to start the conference and also there was an absolutely beautiful painted portrait of the Buddha next to it, one of the most stunning have seen! If it had not been for that kind couple, I do not think I would ever have got to see the relics at all, as the queues were very long indeed. Buddha and karma to the rescue!!
I did not have much free time to look around the campus itself (it was also very hot and humid, so very sweaty when walking around generally, even more than Thailand). However, I noticed some gorgeous flower displays in the tents that were set up in the several tents where the served the free lunch buffet for delegates.
Interestingly, the Vesak Day 2025 event served up a lot of meat (as well as vegetarian) options, which considering the topic of my talk was how the Buddha taught against eating animals for pleasure or desire, or even health, and certainly forbade it for monastics, unless begging for alms, seemed rather strange and out of place at such a huge Buddhist event with so many monastics in attendance. However, this is rather normal I have noticed among Buddhists globally, in Thailand, India, Nepal the amount of “Buddhists’ eating meat seems to be on the increase, as I wrote about before in my Buddhist Door Global article on the topic.
First Day: political messages from heads of state and political leaders, and Buddhist focused plenary panel (predominantly male)
The first day was predominantly messages of congratulations from heads of state, or their representatives, including members of the Chinese Buddhist Union, message from the Prime Ministers of India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Russia (from Putin). That day was distinctively political (in terms of participants) and not so Buddhist. However, the afternoon was messages from Buddhist leaders and Buddhist chanting, with a plenary panel of Buddhist speakers.
Interestingly, as I observed and wrote about in relation to the Global Buddhist Summit in Delhi in 2023, there were almost zero female speakers on the first day speeches and main plenary panel discussion, and only one woman’s message out of around eleven congratulatory messages.
On the final day of the event, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh stressed that the celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City stand as a clear milestone demonstrating the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha’s increasingly prominent role in the international Buddhist community and in strengthening dialogue on global issues, conflict prevention, social justice promotion, and sustainable development. According to Binh, the success of the Vesak celebrations serves as powerful evidence affirming the humanistic values and major achievements of Vietnam and its people, highlighting the nation’s cultural traditions of harmony, compassion, goodwill, and peace-loving spirit.
The second day (7th) was the academic conference itself, which I had been invited to present a paper at, had a greater female presence of voices, including several Bikkhunis (fully ordained nuns). However, many of the panels were all-male too, and I was listed as the only female speaker on my panel of five.
Second Day: International Academic conference: Compassion in Action and Our Diet
There were five main themes for the academic conference (on the second day, 7th May 2025- see photos of the individual panel speakers, in the Appendix at the end of this article):
- Cultivating Inner Peace for World Peace
- Forgiveness and Mindful healing: A Path the Reconciliation
- Buddhist Compassion in Action: Shared Responsibility for Human Development
- Mindfulness in Education for a Compassionate and Sustainable Future
- Fostering Unity: Collaborative Efforts for Global Harmony
When I was invited to submit a paper a few months ago by the UNVD organising committee, I was honoured to be asked, and submitted one for the Compassion in Action theme and how as Buddhists our diet can protect not only animals, and ourselves from significant harm, but also the environment. For more on my research on what Buddha taught about eating slaughtered animals, see the section of my website here, and also my recent article in Buddhist Door Global.
The organisers stated that over 600 English language and more than 300 Vietnamese language papers were submitted by monastics, scholars and Buddhist researchers across five continents. 65 academic speakers were chosen (including myself), as well as 30 esteemed scholar-moderators. See list of speakers in the individual panels of the academic conference in photos below. When I finally got to see the list of scheduled speakers, I felt even more honoured to have been picked and included.
Official delegate academic speakers only received their individual schedule/panel on the Whatsapp group the day before, and only for one’s own theme and panel session. When I requested times and details of the other themed academic panels, I was told by the Whatsapp organiser person (called Kunga, a Tibetan I think) that they were not permitted to send out details of the other panel speakers and schedules. I thought that was a bit odd, and so had no idea who was speaking on the other panels or at what times. The detailed schedule of speakers and panels had also not been published on the conference website beforehand either.
In addition, for some reason, when I arrived to present my speech, one of the volunteer organisers of my panel had added a male speaker, Mr Roland Peter Merka (the man with the ponytail and beard in this photo below, who had not been originally listed as presenting) to take my place last minute to the already all-male panel. When I asked them why he was sitting there and there was no name badge for me, they told me that a volunteer organiser (who they did not name) had wrongly told them that I was not present at the event (sabotage or incompetence?). Nonetheless, thankfully I was there as promised, and gave my speech on Protecting Animals and the Environment with Our Diet as planned (see photo). All’s well that ends well, as we say!
Five star accommodation and food, 33rd floor view and Buddhist “goodie bag” treats
The Vietnamese Buddhist hosts’ at their own expense and funding, flew in official delegates from all over the world and kindly provided accommodation in stunning and luxurious five star hotels in the centre of HCMC (District 1) .
I was initially given a shared room at The Grand Saigon, with an American woman who was not speaking at the conference (whom I recently wrote had been spreading false and malicious rumours about me online anonymously for months, talk about karma moving in “funny’ ways!). However, fortunately, the woman had already informed the organisers she wanted to share the room with another person (blessing in disguise). As I preferred private single occupancy room anyway, and there was not one available at that hotel, I decided to spend the evening in another (far less luxurious) hotel booked at my own expense.
The following day, however, after a a fellow delegate helped me speak to another organiser, I was swiftly, kindly and graciously arrange to be given a beautiful, single occupancy room at The Reverie Saigon on the 33rd floor directly overlooking the Saigon river. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say! And this one was pure silver indeed. The room, service and food in the hotel were five star indeed and the river view pricelessly stunning to watch the sunrise, and at night the high floor a perfect place to see the especially fantastic display of light and stunning man-made architecture, and demonstrating Vietnamese development and economic wealth.
The service and food in particular were 5 star indeed, 6 star in fact! With a great breakfast buffet, of fresh fruits, cappuccino, croissants and more! Although, I do not normally stay at 5 star hotels, and frankly they are too expensive for most ordinary people, it was a very generous and kind gesture by the organisers, and I appreciated and enjoyed it very much. It made the visit very comfortable and pleasurable, and some fond memories were made in that room too, gazing out at the view and sky at sunrise and evening, while lying back on the chaise longue supping on fresh Vietnamese coffee, and their gift of wild red tea, eating a freshly baked croissant from the Tous Les Jours bakeries in the city. Living the dream, or reverie (as they say in Saigon and France)!
Goodie bag of treats gifted by the organisers
The organisers also provided official delegates with some beautifully designed and packaged “Vesak 2025” memorabilia. Although, it was again a very kind and gracious gesture, this kind of thing is not so much “my cup of tea”, especially as I have to travel light and luggage allowance on the return journey plane. However, the stunning photo book on Buddhist National Treasures of Vietnam and wild red tea were lovely gifts, and provided some inspiration to read.
When I left the hotel, I gave away most of these “goodie bag” treats to Vesak Day volunteers at the hotel though as I thought they might appreciate the material objects. And donated some of the books to a local bookshop/cafe which is one of my favourite in HCMC. Here are some photos I took of the hotel view, and “goodie bag” Vesak treats.
While in Ho Chi Minh, inspired by reading their gift of the “National Treasures of Vietnam’ photobook, I also went to see some magnificent ancient Buddhist statues of Avalokiteshvara, in the Ho Chih Minh City History Museum after the event had finished. More on that in another post perhaps!
APPENDIX: PANELS OF SPEAKERS UNVD 2025
Academic speakers invited to attend the Vesak Day international academic conference:
I think, there are clearly a few modern, future-oriented voices in Tibetan buddhism. His Holiness the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje is surely to be considered the very one, and you are clearly among those as well. Maybe in a few (hundred) years people will look back and say that was clearly the onset of a new turning of the wheel of dharma. May it be like that 🙂 thank you for your work and guidance, Adele.
Thank you for your kind and inspiring comments Lars! Yes, I agree with you 🙂
Many thanks Lars! Yes let’s hope that in hindsight, the wisdom will become clearer and clearer to more people. You have merit and wisdom it seems to see and know these things. Wishing you lots of blessings.